Today was an on board day.
Tomorrow is another. I had an
absolutely lovely day, full of wonderful conversations with fascinating people,
interesting lectures, and another class I loved teaching.
The day began with meditation with Bhante Sujatha for a few
minutes before I had to leave to set up to teach. I taught Zendoodles II today. The students have loved learning how to do the different patterns for
Zendoodles. I seem to be known as the
Zendoodle lady on board. When people see
me, they show me the designs they’ve done or ask me to teach them new
ones. I enjoy teaching so much and
having something to offer others that it makes me very happy when they
ask. It’s especially fun to see people’s
joy in their proficiency.
After my class, I stayed in the classroom to take a writing workshop
about Creative Nonfiction for kids. I’m
not overly interested in writing books for kids, but I wanted to hear the
lecturer, Rosie McCormick, and hear what she had to say about writing for
kids. She’s a lovely lady, so that was
pleasant.
Next was another writing-based lecture, this one with Ying
Chang Compenstine. She was born and
raised in China, moved here when she was 23, is married with a 19 year old son,
and has published 20 books with two more in the works. She and her son just finished a book this
past summer. She’s a fascinating woman
with many stories to tell about her homeland and about food – she describes
herself as obsessed with food and in love with China, so she combines both in
her books. She writes children books,
cook books, and memoirs, all three. It’s
been interesting hearing about her life.
She wrote one book that particularly interests me called Revolution
is not a Dinner Party about her childhood growing up in China during the
cultural revolution.
Lunch was a lovely affair with Gerlinde and Jim and
Adrienne, a couple from CA with whom we traveled to Leon the other day. Jim has a very funny sense of humor and loves
to tease me. Adrienne is quieter but
equally delightful to be around. I hung
out with them a lot to day and enjoyed them thoroughly. Extremely nice people with hearts of gold and
funny to boot. What a treat!
I sat in the sun way too long and ended up with my first
sunburn. Maybe some of it will be left
when I get back to VA and folks will be able to tell that I was in sunny lands
for a time.
Doug Mack, the travel writer, www.douglasmack.net, was on at 2, so we
went to hear him talk about the history of tourism since Roman times. Doug brought up a lot of points I hadn’t
considered or hadn’t had a clue about – like that spreading American tourism
was part of the Marshall Plan, promoted to help Europe’s economy after
WWII. And Lyndon Johnson decided to tax
American travel to discourage people from traveling to Europe in the 60’s b/c
we were having economic difficulties and he wanted to encourage tourists to “see
America first.” By that time, though,
apparently, Americans felt like travel was their birthright so they ignored his
injunction. Arthur Frommer’s guidebook, Europe
on $5 a Day changed the face of travel because it made travel accessible to
a whole new group of people – young people living on a tight budget. Doug’s book is all about traveling in Europe
using his mother’s copy of that book from 1969 just to see what is still there
from those days and what it would be like to use it. I look forward to getting a copy of his book
when I get home. He had many sent to the
boat, but they never made it aboard, so I’ll have to be satisfied with knowing
the author but not having my copy of the book signed by him. I’ve enjoyed hearing Doug talk about
travel-writing-related things – it’s certainly a topic I hadn’t considered
before, but it’s been fun to hear!
At 3:15, Jonathan Murray spoke. He’s the man who invented Reality TV. And I
listened to him speak, you might ask?!
The woman whose TV doesn’t get any reception and who has never seen a reality TV show?? Yes, the very same! Gerlinde and I sat with him at dinner the
other night, and I completely enjoyed our conversation. He was a terrific conversationalist and I
enjoyed hearing his take on reality TV.
Today he showed part of the Road Rules show which was done onboard the Semester
at Sea ship in 1998 (?). It was
interesting seeing what that was like.
They had 6 students they followed as they went to South Africa where
they had a black student stay with a family who had been pro-apartheid, and
another black student stay in the township to see what that was like. It was interesting seeing how they put the
show together. I guess I’d watch it now
if it were still on. Jonathan said they’d
never be able to do another show like that now b/c reality TV has changed so much-
this show was done in the gentler, milder days before people got kicked off
shows, etc. – and he said the premise just wouldn’t fly anymore.
This afternoon I planned to go to Bob Atkinson’s writing
workshop for the first time since he started the series over, but when I went
up to the dining room where his classroom is, I saw his wife Cynthia sitting
with Julian Bond and his wife. I’d been
trying to get up my nerve to talk to him the entire trip, so I asked if I could
join them. They were talking about birth
order and favoritism and asked me which child I was (the first) and if I was my
parents’ favorite. I told them what I
thought, but I won’t share it here in case my siblings read this and have a
different opinion or would rather not hear mine! It’s a tricky topic!
I told Julian about One Billion Rising and asked him if he
had any advice for me. He sounded
interested in it and asked how we would know if we get one billion people
rising. Good question. I hate it when the very first question I get
stumps me already – it makes me feel so ignorant or unprepared. The conversation went on to talking about his
experiences in Civil Rights. It was
thrilling talking to him about his life and the activism he was involved
in. I would love to interview him for
hours or days and to learn all about his life from start to finish. I have heard some of that in his lectures on
board, but there is certainly much, much more to learn. He’s had a long and active life. I felt very glad to have had the opportunity to
talk to him and his wife, who is also fascinating. I’m blown away by the quality of people on
this voyage. Tonight, for instance,
there was a passenger talent show. I
wouldn’t say that anyone blew my socks off with his/her talents, though many
were good, including an 8 year old girl who has been a professional actress for
2 years and did a monologue from Macbeth!
But one of the men was a fighter pilot during the Bay of Pigs and was an
ambassador after his time in the service.
William Webster, the former head of the CIA and FBI was here for a
time. People like that. It’s pretty darn cool!
I stayed out on the deck all afternoon because the weather
was splendid and shady enough. Around
sundown, I went to my cabin and got my pastels so I could draw the sunset. It was a pretty day and I wanted to record my
surroundings. I also would love to be
able to sell some artwork before I leave and wanted to have more options available
for folks. I’d only done 8 before today
when I did another 4. I had never drawn the sunset as it was happening. It happened so quickly, I had to keep
switching paper to do a new picture. It was
fun trying to keep up with it. Several
people were watching me draw and were photographing me or videoing me as I was
doing it. Thankfully I didn’t have time
to consider that b/c I was so caught up in what I was doing.
It’s interesting, I’m so used to being around artists when I’m
in Richmond, and darn good ones too, that being the on ship and being the only
artist I’m aware of, is a strange feeling.
People think of being an artist as something quite strange and special
and unusual. While that might be true
(!), I don’t think of artists that way because almost everyone I know is an
artist. Being here where almost no one
considers him/herself artistic, has really brought home to me just how blessed
I am to have such creative people around me at home.
After drawing for a while, I joined a couple of men for dinner,
Earnest and Zandy (Xandy?). I’d eaten
with them before and enjoyed hearing about their travels and plans for life and
love. Another young man joined us, but I
don’t think I’ll be able to remember his name.
He attends Morehouse College and is in his Senior Year. When the other two left, this man and I
stayed and talked for over an hour. He
has applied to join the Peace Corps after graduation and would like to start a
non-profit after that to help kids in an after school program or something like
that. I believe he’ll manage to do
it. He is an extraordinary young
man. I got a lot of pleasure out of
speaking with him. He told me when he
went to college he had to figure out how to do a lot for himself like fill out the
FAFSA (financial aid form for students) and banking stuff, etc. He said she wants to figure out about
mortgages and credit cards, etc. I told
him I’d tell him and proceeded to give him a long lesson in how to buy a house
and what’s a good way to use a credit card, etc. I felt glad to be able to offer him such
practical advice. It’s hard stuff to
figure out on ones own. I was kind of
thrilled that he asked.
SO many fascinating people here! One after another after another after another…
This evening there was a passenger talent show after a
costume parade. The costume parade was
painfully silly – I am just not built to take part in something like that. I can’t even bring myself to dress up for
Halloween. I just feel so awkward when I
try. It was fascinating seeing these
folks taking themselves seriously and dressing like witches and clowns and cows
and Crocodile Dundee, etc. These were
adults, not the kids. I don’t know what motivates a person to dress
up in a costume for a costume parade on a cruise. I really don’t. It’s not that I find it bad or silly or weird
or anything like that – quite – it’s more that it is so foreign to me, I just
don’t know what to think about it. If
you’re a person who does dress up for things like this, you’d be doing me a
huge favor to help me understand. It’s
an aspect of human behavior which leaves me feeling baffled.
The talent show had some high spots, including a young man
from Jamaica who did a beautiful dance and a 9 or 10 year old boy who played the
guitar and sang quite well. A friend of
mind, Lynn, did a comedy routine which was very fun to hear. She told me afterwards that, though she was
in my class, she couldn’t make fun of it because it was just too good to find
anything to joke about about it.
Flattery will get her everywhere!
It was fun to hear her tell stories and make up jokes about our time
together on board.
Speaking of jokes – this afternoon during Doug’s talk, a
woman raised her hand to ask a question/tell a story. She asked if she could tell a joke. Doug felt a little bit alarmed but when she
said it was one her mother told her, he reluctantly agree. His first instinct was correct. The woman told a joke about a couple of
Japanese tourists in NYC some time after WWII.
They stopped someone on the street to ask where the Brooklyn Bridge
was. The New Yorker looked at them and
said, “You can’t find the Brooklyn Bridge, but Pearl Harbor you can find?”
The awkward silence in the room after that was
palpable. It brought home to me the pain
people must have felt after Pearl Harbor that such a joke had existed. It was a fascinating, if horribly awkward,
insight into life in the late 40’s. Doug
handled it well, but I think we all felt sorry for the woman who still hurt so
much she had to tell the joke.
Well, that’s it for today.
I have to get myself in bed so I can teach again tomorrow. We’ll be drawing form using fruit. I had to ask the Field Office to get me some
fruit b/c we’re not allowed to smuggle such things out of the dining room!
Good night!
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